Sonic the Hedgehog Classic Saga
by HyperMetal
Summary: Follow Sonic the Hedgehog as he ventures from his home on South Island to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik, meeting friends and rivals along the way. Covers Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic and Knuckles.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog

"Ohohoho!" the rotund man laughed, adjusting his glasses. He looked out from over the edge of his Eggmobile, down at the ground, strangely checkered with green. This whole island looked like something from Alice in Wonderland, and to compliment the well-decorated hills, staring back at him was a little blue hedgehog, wearing what appeared to be red sneakers and white gloves. He chuckled again at the thought of such absurdities. "And who are you, my little friend?" The hedgehog growled.

"My name's Sonic, and this is MY island! What do you think YOU'RE doing here?" he snarled, clenching his fists even harder. His quills stood on end, raising up to give the tiny animal a more menacing appearance, something that was almost impossible with his little round belly and noodle arms, culminating with big, black eyes that were simply bacon on the eggs. The mustachioed Doctor laughed.

"My! You're quite territorial for such a small hedgehog! You should learn some manners!" the man in red returned his glasses to their original position and sat back in his chair. "My name is Dr. Robotnik! I've come to find a set of artifacts. Perhaps you'd like to volunteer some information, my interesting little hedgehog friend?" The blue hedgehog growled, if for no other reason than being called small. THREE TIMES!

"O'course not! Now get outta here before I hafta force you out, Egghead!" The man laughed even harder, a bit miffed at the insult, then pressed a button on his Eggmobile. A click, then the light on the front of his vehicle flashed green for a moment. Following, a feminine voice responded.

"Life form scan complete, Doctor. Specimen is capable of unfeasibly high-speed movement and agility. Spines located on the back are hard enough, when tensed, to damage the Eggmobile's titanium alloy armor. Specimen's ability to get this far, past your Badnik guards, is testament to his skill. Engage with caution, if at all possible at a distance." The Doctor scoffed.

"Not a problem! I won't even switch modules…this wrecking ball should do the job," he snickered, rooting around for and pressing another button on the expansive control panel in front of him. As he did, the bottom of his craft opened up, releasing a large, checkered wrecking ball on a chain. The hedgehog took a stance, feet back and one hand to the ground, as if he was about to start a race, then suddenly tucked his head between his legs, forming a ball, and began to spin. Dr. Robotnik lurched the machine forward and slammed the massive steel ball into him at full force.

"Ohohoho! That was easy!" Suddenly, the craft began to shake violently. The Doctor looked down, noticing the wrecking ball was the culprit. Out of the top of it, with a loud grinding noise, popped the tiny hedgehog, still curled up in a ball. He hopped out of his new escape route, and stood atop the Doctor's weapon, dusting the dirt and ground-up stone off of his quill "hair".

"Now you've done it!" He curled into a ball again and jumped, then slammed down onto the hood of the Eggmobile bored into the machine itself. The Doctor quickly pulled up out of the ground and began to shake the vehicle wildly, finally shaking the rodent out. The critter landed on the ground, on his feet, smiling.

"Just who are you!" the yellow-and-red-clad Doctor yelled in anger. The hedgehog rubbed his tiny black nose with a single finger, then waggled it his spherical adversary.

"Sonic's the name, and speed's my game! I'm the fastest thing on South OR Christmas Island!" Sonic pointed past the man's vehicle. "Get back to wherever you came from, old man, because this is my turf!" The man harrumphed, flying his wreck of an Eggmobile into the sky, out of range of the hedgehog's painful spines. The oddly-pigmented animal looked after the mysterious interloper, putting his hands to his (nearly nonexistent) hips. "What a weird old man."

In the Doctor's direction, Sonic noticed a large, shining capsule. Although the sun was shining directly on it, there was something about it that seemed dull and lifeless. The diminutive creature sped up to the capsule and quickly smashed through the top of it, destroying the entire mechanism and releasing several of his tiny animal friends. They cheered and hopped away almost as soon as they were released, not even bothering to stop and ask questions, which admittedly annoyed the hedgehog, who needed answers. Sonic peered off in the direction of the Marble Ruins, where Dr. Robotnik had fled. It was dangerous out in that direction, much more dangerous than his newest hangout, Green Hill, but he felt as though the madman wasn't going to stop looking for whatever he was looking for just after one defeat. Sonic curled up again, blasting off in the direction of the Marble Ruins.

The Marble Ruins were dark and overgrown with foliage, long abandoned by the ancients who once called the place home, but the surface wasn't what Sonic had to be careful of. Deep below, lava flows from the island's volcanic origin settled into pools, leaving only a few pillars safe for travel. The blue hedgehog was confident in his ability to jump, but not in his ability to swim in lava.

He ran forward at full speed, dodging a few more of the robots that apparently belonged to that "Dr. Robotnik" fellow. They were rather easily destroyed by Sonic's quills, just like the ones in Green Hill, but the bee-looking ones shot things out of their stingers that didn't feel even a little pleasant. He was careful to avoid getting hurt, and quickly made his way to the entrance of the massive ruin with his Super-Mobius Strip-Peelout (patent pending). He looked up at the door, silently.

"Well, here goes nothin'…" he sighed, leaping through a crack in the wall. Immediately, once inside, a flock of both real and robotic bats swarmed the blue hedgehog, causing him to yelp in surprise. The real, organic bats flew away, off to find a new cave where hedgehogs or other speedy animals wouldn't bother them, but the robots were a little less hesitant to stick around to party. A few of them charged the hedgehog, tiny jet-engines propelling them forward at speeds that rivaled even Sonic's. He grinned, curled into a ball, and tensed his quills…

Cleaning the motor oil from his spines, Sonic came to a pool of the infamous lava. A few lone pillars jutted out of it, making them the only way across. He took a deep breath and swallowed hard: with a running start, he leapt for the first pillar, grabbing it narrowly and slinging himself to the next, then onto solid ground on the other side. Thank goodness. He looked back, grinning. "Ain't afraid of no lava!" he laughed to himself, then sped ahead.

More lava awaited the young hedgehog, making his journey more and more difficult, with less and less room for error at each pass. Inevitably, he came to a lava pit with no way of crossing whatsoever. He sighed heavily, disheartened but not foiled. "Now what…?" he groaned, looking off to one side. As his eyes scanned the ancient bricks, however, he noticed that a few were missing and others were crumbling. He nodded, curled up, and busted straight through the wall into a new room altogether. Inside were strange, spinning objects that looked like gleaming, golden donuts. He approached one slowly, reaching out at it.

"Now, what do we have here?" he said to himself, grinning, "It looks like this dude's hit the jackpot!" he grabbed the ring, and it promptly disappeared in a flash. The hedgehog grunted in discontent. "Laaaaaaaaaame." He, thoroughly let down, touched the rest of them, making them all disappear and leaving the room barren and boring once more. "What a gyp. Oh well, can't stick around, gotta keep moving on." The hedgehog dashed out of the room, smashed through more stone…and straight into a pool of lava. He disappeared quickly below its surface without even a scream.

Little Sonic was curled up, sure he was dead. He looked around, and all around him was bright lava, but he wasn't burning. He didn't even feel too warm. He burrowed his way through the molten rock and out of the fiery pool, and as soon as he touched the ground, the golden rings from before exploded out of him. He yelped in surprise, falling backwards onto one of them and making it stick to his behind for a second before disappearing once more. "What the…?" he mumbled, "Did those things…save me…?" The little hedgehog looked back at the lava, rubbing his chin curiously, then continued forward, finally out of the ancient ruins and into the warm sunlight. He was in the center courtyard of the temple, which, even though it was outside, had succumbed to the slowly emerging lava. Massive, crumbling stone statues of long-haired animal warriors stood up, out of reach on the surrounding temple walls, watching both the hedgehog and the other occupant of the courtyard.

There, standing on the grass, surrounded by pools of lava, was the Doctor. He turned, looking at the tiny hedgehog, and grinned, his mouth barely visible over his round belly and under his massive red moustache. "I should've known it wouldn't be so easy to get rid of you, little one," he sighed, adjusting his glasses and dabbing them with a handkerchief. "But it's too late, I've already got what I came for…" Dr. Robotnik pulled a shining green rock from his pocket, showing its weight and tossing it up and down. "Sonic, my friend, do you know what this is?" The blue hedgehog shook his head, about to fly off the handle at the fat man, impatient with his lecture. "This…is a Chaos Emerald," he said through his seemingly mad grin, "They're filled with endless power, but that power can only be unlocked when all seven are gathered together…" Dr. Robotnik suddenly looked discouraged, "Only six exist on this island. The seventh Chaos Emerald has been missing for a very long time…until now. On a nearby island known as West…" Sonic stopped him there.

"Listen up, you Eggman, if you found those on this island, you're taking MY property!" he snarled, "I don't know what those Power Amethysts or Super Rubies or whatever are, but they're MINE, you hear! I ain't lettin' you take them from this island, especially after you captured my friends!" The Doctor sighed, smiling.

"And you're not letting me go without a fight? Very well," he chuckled, leaping into a hole in the very center of the arena. Out exploded his Eggmobile, refitted with a tube of some sort on the bottom. The hedgehog readied himself again, then jumped toward the machine. However, as he did, the tube shot hot flames straight down at the ground, setting all the grass aflame. Sonic yelped, clawing at the bottom of the ship and finally falling to his fiery doom below. The Doctor smiled grimly. "Such a spunky little hedgehog…it's a shame he had to get roasted."

In the flames below, Sonic grinned, protected by his single ring. He jumped out of the fire, smashing into the fire tube at top speed and destroying it. The Doctor jumped in surprise, jolting his machine upward. He looked down at the little creature, who watched as his last ring bounced away. Sonic glared up at him, then leapt straight toward him. Dr. Robotnik winced as the hedgehog glanced off the front of his ship, landing near a pool of lava and grinning at him. The Doctor scratched his head, confused as to how he wasn't burning to death. He then snorted, lifting his machine up and out of the hedgehog's reach, then out of view.

However, he'd forgotten something in the battle: the green Chaos Emerald. The blue hedgehog stepped closer to it, braving the heat of the nearby flames, and quickly snatched it up. In his palm, the large gem glowed brightly, filling the hedgehog with wonder and curiosity. Dr. Robotnik said they were only powerful if they were all together…but only six where here on the island. Sonic waited for the encircling flames to die down, then sped ahead to the next capsule and busted it open, releasing even more of his captured friends.

"That's two, Eggman, and South Island's only so big," he mumbled under his breath, staring at his new Chaos Emerald, "I'm coming for you." Sonic ran ahead at top speed over the top of the temple as opposed to through it, then leaped off the other side. Finally glad to be rid of fire and lava, he sped over the grassy, ruin-speckled landscape until it slowly became more and more artificial. He was getting near the Spring Stadium (at least that's what the ancient, long useless signs called the area). Whatever used to live on this island sure loved springs, so much so that they'd built a massive, crimson steel structure that went on for miles that was full of them. Sonic was getting a bit worried; he'd never been this far from Green Hill…but…surely if he'd made it this far, he could make it a little further.

The hedgehog came to a sudden steep slant. It was ridiculously high, but Sonic wasn't one for safety, prompting the hedgehog to hop over the edge and curl into a ball. Once he reached the bottom, the massive U-pipe shot him straight back up. The blue mammal screamed in delight as he was launched into the air, into a massive group of golden rings. He reached out, touching as many as he could before plummeting back to the red metal floor. He landed on a large, yellow spring, bounced off, and landed with a twirl on his feet. He could imagine crowds cheering, lady-hogs flocking to him like birds to bread.

With growing courage, Sonic sped past massive steel spiked balls, bounced off giant pinball bumpers, and shot through giant tubes, finally making his way to the end of the giant, spring-filled structure. There, to no surprise on the part of the Doctor or the hedgehog, waited his new nemesis. Robotnik didn't even bother saying anything this time, just grinned as a massive spike jutted out from the bottom of his Eggmobile. The blue hedgehog swallowed hard, staying on his toes as the metallic monstrosity floated just out of reach.

"What're you doing with those Chaos Emeralds, Eggman?" Sonic shouted up to him, holding his own Chaos Emerald to taunt his adversary. Dr. Robotnik's eyes widened, then felt around his uniform; the Chaos Emerald was indeed gone. Enraged, his machine suddenly shot straight downward, sticking the spike in the ground. Sonic had just barely avoided being skewered, and stared the Doctor, who was now at eye-level, in his beady, glasses-shadowed eyes. "Well?" Dr. Robotnik scoffed in response, his moustache swaying as he spoke.

"Tell you what," he laughed, "If you can make it all the way to the Scrap Brain, I think you'll be able to see just what I'm working on." He was sure there was no way he could make it that far. The Eggmobile lifted up and out of the ground, carrying a stone block with it. Sonic looked up, the sun glaring past the Eggmobile, causing him to wince and look away. Suddenly, the block exploded, sending stone shrapnel in every direction. The blue hedgehog yelped as he took a few pieces to the face, causing his rings to fly out. He looked around, grabbing a few of them, then leapt into action. Dr. Robotnik lurched down again, but this time, Sonic was ready. He jumped onto the hood of the machine, threatening to jump on Dr. Robotnik himself. The Doctor shouted in surprise, shooing the hedgehog off his hood.

Sonic growled, curling into a ball and boring into the hull of the Eggmobile yet again. Dr. Robotnik seethed with anger and fear as he quickly lost control of his vehicle, the hedgehog 's razor-sharp spines destroying all manner of wiring and electrical work that took years to perfect. In an act of desperation, he leapt from the cockpit and landed in relative safety on the ground. The rotund man looked up after his Eggmobile, staring silently at it as the engines and navigational system finally malfunctioned and sent it flying, the blue hedgehog thrown out and clinging onto it for dear life. The Doctor pressed a button on his watch with a sigh, and awaited his spare vehicle.

Sonic screamed as the Doctor's now-useless vehicle sped out of control high above solid ground. He didn't recognize the area he was flying above at this point; he'd never even been to the Marble Ruins before, let alone whatever awaited after the Spring Stadium. After what seemed like hours, the Eggmobile's fuel cell went dry. The engines fell silent, and the ground started getting closer. He looked down, noticed the vehicle was starting to fall, and resumed screaming. Below were a few jagged cliffs, over an endless ocean. Lovely.

The Eggmobile hit the salty stone with a crunch that sounded more characteristic of cardboard than titanium, exploding a few seconds later. Sonic was thrown from the vehicle and into a deep ravine; he curled into a ball and bounced off the walls to slow his fall before hitting the bottom of the trench, and finally, he was done falling. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a sigh, checking all of his limbs for breaks and his ego for dents, and none were to be found.

"That…was scary," he mumbled, glad Flicky and Plucky weren't around to hear him admit it, "But where am I?" Ahead of him, the jagged, brown stone turned into smooth, ornate blocks, gargoyles, and torches. The scent of saltwater was still strong in the air. He hopped forward, gaining more and more speed, but suddenly hit the brakes when he saw his mortal enemy: water. The hedgehog yelped, jumping back from the liquid, made inky black by the lack of light from below. He couldn't swim at all; his arms and legs were too skinny and his belly too round. He sunk like a rock in water, and he couldn't even hold his breath for very long.

"No way! I don't care what that Egghead's up to in his Crap Brain, I'm not going underwater in some ancient ruin to get to there," the hedgehog fumed. He then took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let go. "Well…I guess the island IS in trouble…" he sighed, "What's a hedgehog to do? Just let that fatty-fatty-boombolatty take his home over? I don't think so!" The tiny blue mammal flexed his spaghetti arms, posing heroically. "Yeah! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! I can take some stagnant old water! C'mon! Yeah!"

Red-sneakered Sonic plunged into the water head first, instantly losing all confidence he'd gained from his personal pep rally. The young hero flailed his arms frantically, gaining absolutely no height whatsoever, then finally hit the ground with a quiet _whump_. He grunted, crossing his arms and surveying the underwater area. The water was surprisingly clear, so he could see far enough to keep going. He let out a breath in the form of a few bubbles, then jumped to his feet and skidded along the bottom of the pool. "Doin' good so far," he thought to himself, barely able to move. This was SLOW going. WAY too slow for Sonic the Hedgehog. Even curling up didn't help him move any faster.

Reality came crashing down like a ton of bricks when Sonic realized that he was running out of breath. He gripped his throat, which begged for just the tiniest bit of air. His rings had protected him from physical trauma, but would they fill his starving lungs with oxygen? The blue hedgehog wasn't going to wait around to find out. He rushed ahead, moving both his arms and legs to gain a bit of speed, and then the world ended.

Sonic tripped.

He fell face first to the ground, smacking his little black nose on the hard stone, which caused him to gasp in; but what the little hero got wasn't a lung-full of choking water, but oxygen-rich (albeit stale) air. Cracks in the floor of the ruin were filtering water into the areas below, causing air to bubble up from long-forgotten tombs, but it didn't matter where this air came from, it was AIR! The hedgehog stayed immobile for a moment, breathing in short gasps, then took one long, final drag and hopped back to his feet. Bubbles were showering up from below, something he could use as an indicator as to where he could get a fresh breath. It would be slow going, but the little hedgehog could eventually make his way through this ruin, and maybe even to the Scrap Brain.

And it WAS slow going. VERY slow going. But persistence pays off, and Sonic finally came to dry stone. A massive gasp of much fresher air greeted the silent ruin as the blue hedgehog breached the surface of the water, climbing desperately up onto the dry blocks. He shook himself dry, then stood up, panting.

"Never…again…" he groaned, finally gaining enough stamina to run forward and out of the sunken ruins. He smiled through the exhaustion, knowing that he was now a little closer to his goal and he was stronger because of it. Not even water could stop Sonic the Hedgehog now.

Exiting the Labyrinth tossed Sonic into a rather disorienting world. A large, shiny neon sign overhead read "Starlight Zone", which must've drawn inspiration from the endless simulated night sky above (even in the veritable Eden that was South Island, the stars weren't this bright and colorful). All around him, rollercoasters zoomed, rock n' roll music played, and lights flashed. It was paradise for a supersonic hedgehog of Sonic's interests. His eyes gleamed with curiosity and wonder, and he couldn't keep himself from taking off at full speed any longer. He ran alongside a rollercoaster for a few moments before veering off and enjoying some awesome music playing over a lit-up dance floor. That didn't hold his attention long, either, and he took off yet again, until he found something that really tested his mettle. A fan blew impossibly strong winds against the hedgehog, and just beyond it were tons and tons of rings. This was obviously a challenge.

First a jog, then a run, then a sprint, then rolling, and then the Super-Mobius Strip-Peelout (patent pending). He could outrun anything, even the wind, and he would prove that right here-…the fan suddenly switched off, launching the hedgehog forward like the world's fastest catapult.

The speedy little mammal dashed forward, screaming, and through the rings and onto a rollercoaster track of his own. First down, then the narrow catwalk leveled out, then suddenly a full loop (adrenaline!), then another (more adrenaline!), then more hills and loops and finally, a leap off into the air. Sonic managed to keep screaming the whole time, but it went from fear to excitement by the end of the first loop. The hedgehog landed, to his amazement, in a large arena where the crowd roared from every direction. He grinned from ear to ear, running the perimeter of the circle, near his adoring fans, who chanted his name in unison.

Then, suddenly, one of the members of the audience stood up and waved his hand. A quiet "twang" from behind was all that gave away the trap, but not even Sonic was fast enough to avoid it. A jolt of high-voltage electricity coursed through the nearly-invisible wire, shutting down the hedgehog's muscles and brain.

Dr. Robotnik laughed, giving the signal that the current could be cut with the same hand he'd triggered it with. Sonic the Hedgehog wouldn't be a threat any longer.

The faint beep of a heart monitor awoke Sonic the Hedgehog, who was now Dr. Robotnik's prisoner in the Scrap Brain, a massive complex of dangerous machinery and deadly traps, built specifically to keep the inhabitants of the island OUT of the Doctor's work.

Sonic squeaked as his eyes opened, as he was apparently locked in a tube facing some sort of awful funhouse mirror. The Sonic in the mirror's spines were sharper, his features more menacing, his eyes a cold, empty black. It took a few moments, but the captive hedgehog finally realized that he wasn't looking into a mirror, but another tube that held a very Sonic-esque robot. A low chuckle came from out of view.

"How do you like him, Sonic?" Dr. Robotnik asked, his voice full of more hatred and disdain than the hedgehog had heard yet. It sounded almost like a different person entirely. Sonic tried to respond with something witty and 90's, but he couldn't seem to open his mouth, or move any other part of him for that matter. "Don't bother trying to speak, the fluid you're suspended in disables all neurological functions; in essence, you're a vegetable. But enough about you, let's talk about my new friend here." The mad scientist stepped into view, putting one arm around the robot Sonic's tube and patting it lovingly. "I'm afraid we can't be friends anymore, my little blue pincushion. You see, Metal Sonic here is much obedient than you, not to mention faster and stronger."

Sonic's ego screamed at the thought of anyone being faster than him, and the Doctor could tell.

"Best of all, I'm going to use your brain as a central processing unit!" he laughed maniacally, glaring his newest nemesis in the eyes the entire time. Sonic attempted to shout some sort of objection, but all that came out was a few bubbles and a guttural groan. The Doctor laughed, stepping away to finish the procedure. For the first time in the blue hedgehog's life, he felt completely helpless, and it was all because of this bastard of a man, this Eggman, this Dr. Robotnik. He stared into the empty, inactive eyes of his robotic clone, Metal Sonic. Suddenly, the fluid regular Sonic was suspended in began to bubble, making his skin tingle and crawl. Without warning, a massive electrical pulse shot through the hedgehog's body, scanning his brain, thought patterns, and memories. Sonic wailed inside his tube, his body twitching helplessly as electricity coursed through him.

"Once we've transferred your brain's mapping into Metal's hard drive, you won't have the will to keep that Emerald cooped up inside you," the Doctor chuckled, watching the process from the other side of the room.

A siren roared into the air, the glass on the tube encasing the poor hedgehog cracking beyond repair. Sonic's body glowed a brilliant green, the Chaos Emerald that now rested as energy within his body objecting to the torture. The tube exploded outward, throwing Sonic out and onto the ground. Dr. Robotnik squealed in terror, quickly jumping into an emergency exit tube and disappearing with a suction sound. Sonic fell to his knees as the stasis liquid dripped off of him, slowly returning function to his body. He looked up at Metal Sonic, who still stood lifeless in his tube, and grinned.

"Looks like today's my lucky day, Metal," he said, coughing out the last of the liquid, "I get to keep my bestest friend." He grinned the grin of sweet revenge, then took off after the malevolent scientist. The hedgehog passed through a massive glass hallway, revealing what Dr. Robotnik was working on, just as he had promised back in the Spring Stadium.

A massive spherical vessel, bearing the Doctor's likeness on its hull, was being constructed below him. It looked nowhere near completion, but at its size, nothing Sonic could do could hamper its construction without getting him killed by the hundreds of Badniks working on it. The only thing he could do was to stop this awful carrier from launching was to stop the Eggman himself.

"Which I will enjoy," the enraged hedgehog said, completing his own thought. This went beyond Chaos Emeralds, his turf, or even his animal friends at this point. Now it was personal. However, the Doctor would not go easily, as the Scrap Brain was just as full of traps and deadly mechanisms as Sonic had expected. Massive pistons threatened to smash Sonic into a blue paste, broken vents spat scorching flames, and anodes shot lighting between one another. Some of the floors even had circular saws running through them. Worst of all, there were no rings here, so one mistake, and the hedgehog was done for.

After a million close calls, and a hundred closer ones, Sonic spotted the doctor standing at the end of a long hallway. "Found you!" he cried, speeding toward the mustachioed red-and-yellow ball of a man. As he got closer (long after it was too late), he realized the Eggman he was charging after was a piece of cardboard, sticking his tongue out at his nemesis. The intercom came on for a moment as the hedgehog inspected the fake.

"I do believe this is checkmate, Sonic," the Doctor laughed, "Ta-Ta." The floor beneath Sonic opened up, dropping him into a dank, disgusting place that could only be the sewers of the Scrap Brain. The spiny mammal landed face-first in some sort of awful-smelling water, quickly scrambling up the side of the pool to get out. He hacked out what little he'd swallowed and growled.

"If it's not one thing, it's ANOTHER!" he shouted at no one, revving up his legs like a set of wheels and taking off. The sewers smelled awful, but they were very similar in architecture to the Labyrinth he'd been in earlier. "Robotnik must've turned this place into his factory's toilet," he gagged, holding his nose, "No way he built this."

He had taken a few creative liberties with it, though. Steel spikes jutted out of the walls at regular intervals, threatening to skewer Sonic if he was too close. The Doctor didn't trust the hedgehog to just drown; this guy really WAS smart, Sonic had to give him that. In fact, if it weren't for those rings, he would've been toast by now. That wasn't helping him gain any courage though, so Sonic kept his mind blank and his mouth quiet for the rest of the dilapidated way.

At last, to his nose's delight, Sonic came to a ladder that went straight up. Climbing the ladder slowly and cautiously (he knew now that he couldn't trust anything in the Scrap Brain), the hedgehog made his way back into the main part of the facility and back on track. The end of the track, for that matter. Just a few yards ahead, waited the real, three dimensional Dr. Robotnik, standing in a booth of some sort. But this time, he wasn't smiling or laughing.

"You've come a long way, hedgehog," he snarled, tapping some buttons in his control booth. His chamber disappeared up into the ceiling, but he continued talking over the intercom. "You've freed all of your animal friends, you've destroyed my robots, and you've made it this far into my base," his voice roared from nowhere. A massive piston hissed above Sonic, giving him only a few moments to avoid being crushed. The surface of the piston was electrified, giving off sparks as it hit the metal floor. "I'm sure you saw my brainchild on the way over," the Doctor boomed again as the piston made its way back into the ceiling. This time, two panels on the floor rose up a bit, then crashed into the ceiling. Sonic bounded off of his, landing on the floor between the two. He spotted Dr. Robotnik in the second piston, facing the other direction and completely unaware of the hedgehog's presence. Sonic curled into a ball, charging into the Doctor's pod, throwing him off kilter. The electricity coursing through the shaft gave him a strong jolt, but Sonic's adrenaline wasn't going to let him stop now. The piston retreated into the floor, and the sound of clunking heavy machinery rumbled below.

"You STILL won't give up, will you?" he screamed from the speakers, "No matter what I've set in your way, you won't die! You won't give up! You persistent little NUISANCE!" His piston crashed down from the ceiling this time, prompting Sonic to dodge it and crash back into it with as much force as possible. The Doctor stopped speaking altogether, only snarling in rage at his foe. Lightning dropped from the anodes on the ceiling, giving Sonic yet another thing to worry about, but it didn't stop the now-silent hedgehog.

Another piston, another hit.

Sonic's quills were doing visible damage to the machine his nemesis was piloting, making it slower and less accurate each time. The Doctor was becoming more and more frustrated, making his machine lose even more of its deadly power with each passing moment. The two adversaries dueled in complete silence besides the roaring machinery. The fate of the island was hanging between the hedgehog and his nemesis.

Another piston, another hit.

This time, the Doctor's pod came smashing down from the ceiling, unable to retreat. Sonic grinned at him, tackling him out of the now-exposed booth and onto the ground behind it. The once-proud and evil Dr. Robotnik was instantly reduced to a sniveling coward in the face of real bodily harm.

"Th-Th-The rest of the Chaos Emeralds!" he cried, "T-Take them! Just don't hurt me, p-please!" His mustache drooped in fear, sweat rolling down his forehead and his glasses about to slide off his nose because of it. Sonic laughed, standing on the Doctor's massive belly. He pointed down at him, sticking his finger right on the tip of his sweaty, red nose.

"I'll take those Emeralds, and you're getting off my island! Got it? GOOD!" Sonic leaped off of the Doctor, causing him to flinch and stand up immediately. He scrambled to his parked Eggmobile, trying desperately not to fall down the whole time. Once inside, he flew out of the massive port behind the machine he was piloting earlier, with Sonic on his heels the whole time. The hedgehog stopped at the edge, staring out after Dr. Robotnik, who was disappearing over the horizon of the endless ocean. He smiled, turning back to collect his prize. There, floating over a pedestal, were five of the supposed seven Chaos Emeralds. They each shone a glorious color different from his own, giving off an otherworldly light.

Sonic approached the glowing crystals slowly; his one was obviously aware of the other five's presence, and glowed brighter than ever before. The blue hedgehog held his arms open, each of the Emeralds floating toward him and disappearing within him, becoming pure energy like the green one.

Within the blink of an eye, he was back in Green Hill. The sudden blast of fresh air made him smile involuntarily. He took off with his trademark speed, feeling the grass tickle his feet through his sneakers, the fresh wind blowing his quills back, and his animal friends returned to their joyous state: everything was just as it should be on South Island, which belonged to Sonic the Hedgehog once more.

TO BE CONTINUED IN SONIC CD

Sonic travels to Never Lake to see Little Planet in its yearly appearance, followed by his biggest fan, Amy Rose. However, not all is as it seems at Never Lake, where a giant chain holds Little Planet in place! This just REEKS of Robotnik's work!


	2. Sonic the Hedgehog CD

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CD  
Act 1 – The Little Planet (Present)

Sonic ripped across the mountainous landscape, crossing streams and forests with ease and lightning speed. He'd been running for miles now, enjoying every minute of the fresh air and beautiful sights. He rarely visited the mainland, due to his inability to cope with long stretches of water, but this yearly event was reason enough to drag out the Tornado to cross the ocean. In the distance, he could see the relatively tiny satellite, Little Planet, hanging over Never Lake, a massive fresh water reservoir nestled in the middle of tall stone spires and hills that looked like fingers reaching up to grab Little Planet and bring it into the lake.

In the past few months, since he'd taken down Dr. Robotnik on South Island, Sonic had been getting more and more adept in his abilities. He'd learned that, while running, he could use his momentum to fling himself great heights and distances, nearly giving him the ability to fly, useful for traversing high cliffs and largely vertical areas, which he was going to be dealing with getting to Never Lake. One reason the area was still so beautiful was the fact that it was so difficult to get to.

Dashing up the side of one mountain and back down the other in mere seconds, the hedgehog stopped short of falling into the massive lake and looked up at his destination. The Little Planet, beautiful and mysterious, floated just above the clouds, causing the water in the lake to bow in the center like a bed sheet with a basketball on it. This created the illusion that the lake was receiving Little Planet into itself, despite the fact that the two would never touch.

"It's said," a voice from behind the blue hedgehog whispered, "that time stands still at Never Lake." Sonic whipped around, greeted immediately by a hug from a pink hedgehog in a white blouse, with green sleeves and an orange skirt. She giggled loudly at her hero's surprised reaction. The Blue Blur turned bright red, pushing Amy off of him and turning back around.

Amy Rose was Sonic the Hedgehog's biggest fan, and girlfriend, although she took the relationship much more seriously than her immature beau did: as with most adolescent boys, Sonic was intrigued by girls but deathly afraid of them, despite his constant claims to be otherwise. She smiled and hopped back over to her beloved blue hedgehog, who was pointing off into the distance.

"Look," he said, pulling Amy's head (who nearly squealed) closer to his so she could see from his perspective, "What on Earth is that?" In the distance, all the way on the other side of the lake, was a long, thin tether connecting Little Planet to the mainland. That certainly wasn't right. Amy shrugged, turning to her hero.

"Are you going to go check it out? Can I come?" she begged, grabbing her boyfriend's hand and shaking it wildly. Sonic sighed, knocking the pink hedgehog's legs out from under her and catching her in his arms. She giggled like a madwoman as the pair took off at supersonic speeds around the lake; seconds after they left their position, a massive iron chain led by a giant harpoon impacted the ground there. Sonic skidded to a halt, putting his girlfriend down and looking back.

"Amy, get out of here. Something's up," he shouted, motioning for her to step away, but she didn't move. In the distance, another harpoon struck the ground, further anchoring the planet in place. Sonic grimaced, looking up at the planet. "I smell rotten eggs." Amy looked at him, confused, but only seconds later, he was gone, speeding up the chain and onto the mysterious Little Planet hovering over Never Lake.

The chain hit the surface of Little Planet in the middle of a expansive plain, very similar to Green Hill back on South Island. Sonic tumbled down to the ground, landing face-first in the dirt. He grumbled, unmoving for a moment, then suddenly screamed and jumped up when a giant robot mosquito poked him in the rear with its sharp proboscis. The hedgehog turned around, clenching his fists. "Heheh…I should've known," he said with a peeved grin. A Badnik confirmed old Robuttnik's hand in the imprisonment of Little Planet. Sonic curled into a ball, speeding toward the bug and busting it to pieces. As the sparking husk of the Badnik fell to the ground, a flower sprouted out of it. The heroic hedgehog looked at it for a moment, puzzled.

"Flowers…?" he mumbled, "What the…" His thought was interrupted by sudden scream; he sighed heavily as Amy Rose dropped from the "sky". Sonic dashed over, catching her in his arms and looking her in the eyes, rather annoyed and dismayed at her presence.

"Sonic! I came to help!" she said joyously. The blue hedgehog sighed, putting her down and walking the other way.

"Go home, Amy," he said with a grunt, "This is dangerous stuff, especially if Dr. Robotnik finds out that we're, uh…" Sonic blushed. "You know…boyfriend and girlfriend…" he looked up. He wouldn't admit it in a million years, but he was afraid of what the ol' Egghead was capable of, especially now that he cared about someone other than himself. Amy began to tear up, putting her hands up by her mouth to hide her quivering lip.

"B-But, Sonic…" she sniffled, "I just want to help! I can run pretty fast, like you, and I have my hammer!" She raised her Piko Piko Hammer into the air, demonstrating how she'd smash Badniks with it. Her cobalt boyfriend crossed his arms in exasperation, then huffed.

"Fine, but you're staying RIGHT WITH ME!" he cried, starting off past the massive tether between this planet and the one below (or above, from the hedgehogs' perspective). Amy squealed with delight, on the heels of her beloved hero. The two, together, made their way through this alien, yet somehow familiar landscape, with Sonic teaching Amy the ropes of fighting Badniks and speeding through traps. He had to admit, she was pretty fast; nowhere near as fast as him, of course, but still pretty fast. Times he'd thought he'd left her in the dust, she'd appear only moments later, smiling smugly at him. If there was anyone who could keep up with Sonic long enough to be his girlfriend, it was Amy Rose.

Palm trees swayed in the gentle, whispering breeze as Sonic and Amy zoomed by, bopping Badniks and looking for clues as to what exactly was going on. Not a thing to be found, beside the presence of the robot minions themselves and the complete lack of any sort of animal life. The Badniks were newer models, ones Sonic hadn't seen before, so it had to be Dr. R back in business, not a proxy using his machines, but there was no sign of the Doctor himself.

Until, that is, they found the holographic projector. At first, Sonic thought he was looking at himself, but then, he realized, just like before, it was a robot. Not just any robot, but Metal Sonic, the one from the Scrap Brain. The cobalt-plated hedgehog's hologram held a rabbit down with his pseudo-sneakered foot, and held a bird desperately trying to escape in one of his iron-clawed hands. This explained the lack of any sort of wildlife: no small animal with a brain would go near this thing.

In the middle of Sonic's investigation, his pink companion smashed the device with her hammer. He jumped back with a yelp, then frowned at her. Amy laughed out loud, then took off down the path they were already exploring. The blue hedgehog chased after her, growling and shouting. As they continued and Sonic's temper settled, they noticed more and more animals returning to the area; birds sang, frogs hopped in pools of water, rabbits scurried through the brush. The hero and heroine had gotten this palm tree paradise out of its panic, and it settled warmly in their hearts.

Before long, though, palm trees began to become more and more scarce, while strange purple pillars become more prevalent. Finally, the grass gave way to magenta tiles that seemed to stretch for miles. Massive towers covered in lights and what appeared to be pinball flippers pierced the afternoon sky; night was coming soon, and this amusement park was just getting fired up. Amy grinned, running ahead and jumping onto one of the dubious flippers, curling up into a ball like her hero usually did. Sonic watched intently as she hopped up a bit, then struck the flipper again. This motion rocketed her into the sky, squealing in terror. The blue hedgehog laughed out loud, slapping his knee and desperately trying to keep from falling over.

"What'd you expect, Amy?" he shouted, holding back tears of laughter, "A pedicure?" He waited, grinning, for a response, but none came. He sighed, putting a gloved palm to his head and speeding onto the flipper to mirror his partner's movements.

However, halfway up the blistering ascent, Sonic's curled form met with extreme resistance. An iron fist spiked the hedgehog back down the way he'd came, prompting him to uncurl and grab his head in agony. Rings grabbed during their earlier run scattered in every direction, protecting the blue hedgehog from what normally would've crushed his skull. In the final moments before hitting the ground, Sonic the Hedgehog gasped in terror.

"SOOOOOOOOOOOONIIIIIIIIIIIC!" his pink girlfriend screamed at the top of her lungs, struggling desperately to escape her robotic captor's grasp. Metal Sonic hovered silently in the air above the plummeting hero, then took off into the sky with a trail of exhaust behind him.

With a "bing", the blue hedgehog bounced harmlessly off a glowing, neon bumper, through a few glass orbs, and onto solid ground. He rubbed his head, looking up after his metal counterpart with a snarl. Metal Sonic's rear turbine was a glimmering dot in the dusk now, and quickly disappeared beyond the clouds. Amy's screams were nearly silent, then finally became so after a moment.

Sonic jumped to his feet, then blasted up the tower, jumping from flipper to flipper to gain altitude as quickly as he could. A few seconds later, he was at the top, where he was confronted with another alien sight. In front of him, looking shiny and new, was a golden sign with one simple word on it, written in raised, silver letters: [i]Past[/i]. Curiosity commanded him to reach out and touch it, so he did.

"PAST," echoed some voice in Sonic's mind. It was deafeningly loud, causing him to recoil with his hands to his pointy blue ears. Other than that, nothing happened. He looked around, not seeing any readily noticeable changes in the environment, then shrugged. In the distance, there were more towers impeding his progress, intermingling with spinning, multicolored glowing barrels and giant pinball machines. It was going to be another long journey, probably plenty dangerous, too.

Sonic grinned at the thought, and blazed down the side of the tower, feet in a blur.

Act 2 – Beneath the Surface (Past)

The pink tiles making up the tower began to lose their tangibility as Sonic hurtled toward the ground. All at once, his eyes were filled with streaking colors and loud noises, forcing them shut and causing our hero to yelp in confusion. He curled into a ball, the tower under his feet giving way entirely to whatever force was devouring it. By the time he hit the ground, the strange phenomenon was over, leaving the blue hedgehog dazed and confused.

The world around him had changed entirely; in the distance, several volcanoes continuously erupted, spewing molten rock down slopes where glowing neon towers once stood. The ground wasn't pink, artificial tile anymore, just thick, dark grass over wet dirt, intermingling with all sorts of strange, alien plants. He took a few steps forward, and, just as he did, a few massive dragonflies dashed overhead, stopped a second, then took off in different directions.

"This is…strange…" Sonic said to himself, too stunned to rocket through his new location as he normally would. He wandered slowly through the dark, primeval world, surrounded by large, imposing trees with sharp, scaly bark and dark, foreboding canopies. There was a stench in the air, strong and earthy; it smelled like a greenhouse, but much more prevalent and invasive, not to mention the humidity that was already making the hedgehog's exposed flesh sweat. With that, Sonic put two and two together.

This was the past of wherever he was before, the knowledge of which broke his childlike curiosity. Sonic chuckled, rubbing his nose, "Doesn't matter where or when I'm at, Amy's still in trouble in the present. I've got to find a way back there…" The hedgehog felt a sudden tap on his shoulder, causing him to curl up, leap into the air, and land facing his attacker, all in less than a second.

"Wait!" the strange creature yelped, pointing a feather-laden spear in the blue hedgehog's direction. Sonic didn't readily recognize what species he was, but his face was painted with white markings, accenting his dark, crimson fur almost perfectly to the point that they looked somewhat like birthmarks. He wore some sort of tribal garb, with a few bones lining a leather cuirass. Unlike Sonic, he didn't choose to wear shoes, revealing flat, toeless feet just like the hedgehog's looked when he did decide to head out barefoot.

"Wh-Who are you…?" Sonic asked, entirely surprised to see anyone standing on two feet and talking in this ancient time. The strange mammal crossed his arms, gathering his composure, then looked back up at the hedgehog.

"M-My name is Emtark," the hedgehog-like creature sputtered, stepping backward slowly. "Y-You're a hed-hedgehog! Please d-d-don't hurt me!" Sonic shrugged, cocking one eyebrow.

"Why would I hurt you…? What are you, anyway?" the blue hedgehog leaned forward, getting a closer look. "Don't look like any animal I've ever seen." Emtark seemed somewhat disarmed, putting his spear back to his side.

"Are you serious…?" the young warrior asked, "Have the other hedgehogs kept you under a rock? That would explain your strange sandals…" Sonic's jaw dropped.

"Don't you even TALK trash about my shoes, dude," the young blue hero fumed, "These shoes are HAPPENIN'. Besides, they're way better than the duds you're sportin'." Emtark laughed, waving one hand at his opponent.

"Okay, okay, I think I need to take you back to Chief Pachacamac. He'll need to know there are hedgehogs on the Miracle Planet," the warrior chuckled. Sonic sighed, shaking his head.

"Whatever you say, Red."

This Pachacamac fellow, along with the rest of Emtark's ilk, resided in an underground ruin not far from where the amusement park would be built one day far in the future. The crumbling grey and green stone, accompanied by a damp environment, reminded the hedgehog ever so slightly of his brush with the Labyrinth back on South Island, but the reliefs, statues, and color scheme were completely different. Plant life from above dropped roots and vines into the massive room in a desperate search for water. The other members of Emtark's tribe looked as though they were mining for something, as Sonic's escort to the chief was nearly lined with more red mammals of various shades, carefully searching and dismantling the walls. There were small piles of a luminous golden metal near some of the miners, proving their ingenuity and skill, or luck. A few of them turned back to Emtark and his "visitor", gasping and quickly keeping to themselves, to Sonic's confusion.

Finally, the pair emerged into a massive mezzanine, where more workers toiled, and one, dressed more ornately than the rest, barked orders. Emtark quickly fell to one knee, forcing Sonic to do the same with a surprisingly firm hand.

"Chief Pachacamac! A hedgehog was dwelling above," he announced. The young, but clearly powerful chief turned to eye Sonic the Hedgehog. He, like Emtark, held a spear in one hand, although it was decorated with what looked to be the skulls of fallen enemies (one of them was a hedgehog, to Sonic's chagrin) and with more colorful feathers than those of his guards. He wore a helmet made of hollowed out skull (or maybe two), which matched his bone and leather chest piece, more intricate and thicker than Emtark's. Strangely, two of his knuckles on each hand ended in a pair of bony spines that looked rather intimidating.

"How on Earth did those buffoons get a spy up to the Miracle Planet?" he scoffed, rubbing his chin, "We never would have even made it without the Sky Sanctuary. Those halfwits couldn't fly a bird up here." Sonic growled, finally pushed over the edge.

"You gottalotta guts sayin' something like that about Sonic the Hedgehog!" the blue hero shouted, spines tensed, "I haven't been sent by "the hedgehogs", or anyone! I'm trying to get to my girlfriend Amy!" The chief smiled.

"You're bold, saying that to the leader of the powerful Echidna Tribe, right in the middle of all of these proud workers and soldiers," he admitted in his rough voice, "I take from your demeanor and…dress…that our project here is a success." Sonic smiled, rubbing his nose.

"Thanks for joinin' us, Chief, but I ain't wearin' no dress," the cocky hedgehog chuckled. "So what exactly is going on here? Some kinda war with the hedgehogs? And you guys are…what…echidnas? Never heard of those." Pachacamac nodded, somewhat bothered by the latter statement.

"We've battled the hedgehogs for territory for ages, although that is not our main concern here," Pachacamac explained, "We're mining for Time Stones, strange crystals with the power, when exposed to enough energy, to turn back or jump forward in time. I assume a Time Stone is how you got here?" Sonic shook his head.

"Nope," he scoffed, "I touched a fancy sign that said "Past" on it, started running, and ended up here." Chief Pachacamac's eyes widened.

"You must be mistaken, my friend," he said, putting a hand on the much smaller Sonic's shoulder, "Even our most advanced Time Panels require massive amounts of energy to activate, with no signs of reduction in their cost. There's no way simply running could utilize one, unless you managed to exceed the speed of sound!" His gruff laugh echoed in the busy mezzanine, causing few echidna workers to turn back to check to see their Chief's sanity was intact. The blue hedgehog grinned widely, giving Pachacamac a thumbs-up.

"That'd be me, Packy," he said with a smirk, "Sonic the Hedgehog, fasting thing on Earth, and now Little Planet!" The echidna leader's face turned stony and silent, leaning on his spear to keep himself on two feet as if a colossal weight had just be dropped on his shoulders. The two guards near him clearly felt the same sudden weakness, as it took them a second to help Pachacamac right himself.

"Follow the ruins, into the old mining facility," Pachacamac stated quietly, pointing behind him. "You'll find more Time Panels that should take you back to your time, although they're useless to us without some sort of massive energy source." Sonic nodded, glad to finally get his butt back in gear, then charged up his patented Super Mobius Strip Peelout. He grinned at the Chief.

"Thanks for the help, Packy," he said, moments before disappearing in a cloud of dust. Pachacamac watched him go, turning his eyes to the floor for a moment before closing them in contemplation. One of the guards looked over, breaking his "strong, silent type" act.

"Was he…?" he asked, quietly, voice timid and almost childlike.

"It was, if the prophecies are to be believed," Pachacamac sighed, burdened. He knew that they were. The image of an ancient mural hung heavy in his mind, in the most holy of Echidnan Palaces, depicting the cataclysmic battle between titans that could mean the end of the planet. He'd had his suspicions at the sight of the little blue hedgehog, but when his abilities matched the prophecies, there could be no mistake.

The ruins continued for a quite a ways, but were mostly boring and empty. Sonic jogged along, letting his mind wander to rescuing Amy from the evil Metal Sonic, heroically proving that nothing could stop the blue hedgehog when he put his mind to something. Sonic's mind was snapped brutally back to reality when he hit a massive chasm, where some of the ruins had apparently given way to time, nearly tumbling down into its murky depths. He looked down into it, quickly stepping back and covering his mouth.

"Oooooh man, water…" He patted his round tummy to get it back in order. "Less daydreaming, more running. Who knows what Metal Sonic and old Dr. R have planned for Amy…" He sighed, taking a running start, then leaping over the chasm. He grabbed a bar attached to the ceiling, and vaulted himself forward faster, curling up to absorb the impact of landing. The last thing he needed right now was a swim.

This athletic move finally placed Sonic in the now-abandoned mining complex, leaving him to explore the relatively open area. Colossal, natural limestone pillars off to Sonic's left were the only things separating him from a panoramic view of a beautiful purple mountainside, still young and clean. To his right, the walls were mined empty, with small flecks of golden Time Stone on the ground being the only indicator of there being any sort of success. The stone itself was a deep purple, with several shining quartz deposits jutting from the walls and floor, looking like giant diamonds waiting to be plucked and placed on a ring.

This place looked very new, compared to the ancient ruins he'd just been in. They were probably completely gone in his own time, buried under the empty amusement park that no one would ever be amused by and collapsed into the underground river below. The echidnas, Sonic thought, were very advanced for as long ago as this was (or was it more recent than he'd thought? There was no way to tell). There were conveyor belts for transporting ore, glass tubes for quick transit through the mines, and even strange, glowing orbs that lit the room. The hedgehog quickly decided that was enough sight –seeing, and dashed ahead in search of the Time Panels.

He quickly found himself running against a conveyor belt hell-bent on keeping him from getting back to his own time, where the hedgehog was suddenly assaulted by a cluster of energy charges. He rolled to one side, then the other to avoid getting singed, then looked up toward the end of the stubborn belt. Two blue, scorpion-shaped robots waited there, shiny and brand-new. They released another volley of bombs, prompting Sonic to speed up and curl into a ball. The first one went down as he smashed into it, destroying its CPU and shutting it down immediately. The second snapped at him with large, deadly claws while it charged its weapon, then released another volley at point-blank range.

The blue hedgehog instantly disappeared from the robot's sensors, reappearing behind it and smashing its tail gun, leaving it near-useless with its limited movement. Sonic stuck his tongue out at the robot, fleeing the scene. He'd learned that, for extremely short distances, he could move faster than any eye, be it mechanical or organic, could register, which had never been directly useful (but was still way past cool) until now. But how where there robots in this time? They definitely didn't look like the work of the echidnas, who seemed more versed in the ways of stone and magical energy than in metal and electricity. Unless the Doctor was managing to run at the speed of sound, there was no way there his robots could possibly be here, in the past. Dr. Robotnik wouldn't even be born for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

Then it hit the blue hedgehog like a ton of bricks. Old Egghead didn't have to run the speed of sound, because [i]Metal Sonic already could[/i]. Metal Sonic was using the Time Panels to travel back in time, and was somehow transporting robots with him in the process. Luckily, it seemed the echidnas hadn't encountered the robots or Metal Sonic yet, so it didn't seem like they were in any direct danger just this moment.

"Enough thinking, though, I've gotta get to the bottom of this…" Sonic mumbled to himself, taking off at his namesake speed. Along the way, there were more and more of the Doctor's minions, resembling snails, caterpillars (these, it seemed, were being reused from his South Island escapades), and more scorpions, all in deadly robotic form.

The Time Panels were easy enough to find, but the "Panel" part was no longer with the rest of the construct. They were, instead, mounted on a massive, spark- and smoke-spewing machine, all of them reading [i]Future[/i] in the same silver letters that had read [i]Past[/i] on the only other Time Panel the blue hedgehog had seen. The machine was shaped somewhat like a clam with no hinges, or a sandwich with no meat, two buns floating parallel to one another with a strange, portal-like energy rift inside, out of which was pouring more Badniks.

Sonic's first impulse, obviously, was to smash it, but would the Time Panels be any good in their separated state? This machine was obviously crafted to use them this way specifically, but Sonic the Hedgehog was not. It would be exceedingly difficult for him to return without the aid of these Time Panels, but not destroying the device would make for an unpleasant surprise for the echidnas. As the hedgehog contemplated his course of action, tiny, falling debris lead his eyes up to the domed ceiling, where, etched jaggedly by iron claws into the intricate Echidnan stonework, was a message. The young hero's eyes widened as he broke (TOO SLOW) out into a cold sweat. The message repeated itself (TOO SLOW) over and over again, all over the ceiling, echoing (TOO SLOW) in Sonic's mind.

No more than a second later, the hedgehog was through Robot Teleporter's portal, into a world that he no longer knew.

Act 3 – Final Fever (Bad Future)

The smell of heavy exhaust fumes quickly and forcefully filled Sonic the Hedgehog's nostrils, making his eyes tear up and his lungs recoil in horror. He was flung somewhat haphazardly from the Robot Teleporter, landing on his tiny, red-clad feet only to start coughing in league with the best smokers of the '50s. The air was a dense cloud of noxious fumes, leaving little-to-no visibility, and with that came a sense of intense claustrophobia. Sonic ran forward, brushing past the line of Badniks ready to be sent back to the past, who thankfully didn't get a chance to lock on to him.

Running in the cloud was like running with your eyes closed, so Sonic held his hands out forward in an attempt to prevent any face-to-hard surface collisions. That wasn't his trouble, however, as his feet quickly lost grip of whatever surface they were running on and sent the blue hedgehog tumbling through the air. The thick cloud finally broke, revealing a strange, almost disco-lit floor that he happened to be hurtling toward. He landed on it, catching himself with his hands and flipping himself over to his feet again.

He coughed a few more times, kneeling down to feel the worn, grimy surface below him. It was oddly soft, like rubber cement or the knee-decimating rubber substance they put down at playgrounds in the city, which was confusing, as he seemed to be in a factory of some sort. Looking up, there were massive pipes running every which way, most of which were rusted out and falling apart, lazily belching out some disgusting, black liquid. Odd, spinning platforms hovered just out of reach, seemingly useless for any reason other than decoration and adding to the ominous atmosphere.

The walls themselves were rusted beyond any sort of repair, as were most of the alien, television tube-looking structures up above. All of a sudden, a buzzer went off, causing Sonic to almost jump out of his shoes. The floor lit up at the sound, illuminating some of the panels that weren't broken or covered entirely by grime or rust fallen from above. When the hedgehog touched down again, he rocketed up into the air at speeds even he thought were incredible. He flailed his arms wildly, screaming, and managed to grab onto a catwalk high above the floor. Like the rest of the factory, the catwalk was nearly crumbled away, flecks of bright blue paint being the only reminder that this wasn't always a hellhole.

From high above the factory floor and the fumes it coughed out, Sonic could see through the crumbling walls of the nightmarish production plant that things weren't only worse on the inside. Desolation ruled Little Planet, not even a single blade of grass growing out of the dry, cracked wasteland. A river of sludge churned and bubbled its way down what was surely at some point a bountiful riverbed, giving off a cloud of fumes that distorted the air above it even more than the desert-like heat did.

The hedgehog had to get out of this awful place. He threw himself forward, managing to curl up and bust through one of the entirely rusted out walls, dropping him a few hundred feet to the ground, where he bounced off the dusty surface and regained his footing. He immediately sped forward, leaping over the disgusting river (which filled his nose with another, even more unimaginable smell), and disappearing into the desert.

There was no sign of any life, not even a cactus or a dead shrub. It was dead silent under the burning sun and brown/green sky of Little Planet, further compounding Sonic's feeling of isolation. He stopped, looking down at the ground, which didn't give at all under his feet as he kicked at it. The dirt was as hard as stone, never to give life to another plant again. He sighed heavily, the dashed forward.

What seemed like hours of running, through sundown and finally dusk, finally put the hedgehog somewhere that wasn't completely devoid of activity. In the distance, a deep red glow penetrated the inky black night, giving Sonic's endless sprint a finish line. He sped toward it, hitting the lip of a deep crater and looking down below, where a neon red metropolis spewed smoke and sulfurous fumes. Fires roared from industrial chimneys, monorails transported materials at dangerously high speeds, and robots filled the streets of the giant, mechanized dystopia. In the very center of the city, which was barely visible due to the smog, was one of the chains holding Little Planet in place, now disintegrating from years of exposure to corrosive fumes. It lead into a cylindrical shaft, which in turn most likely went deeper into the city. [i]That's my target,[/i] Sonic thought, pointing directly at it.

The sprawling metropolis must've gone on for miles, but it was hard to tell with such awful visibility. Without further delay, Sonic stepped over the edge of the crater, speeding down the side and jumping onto one of the monorail lines. He tight-roped his way to one of the stations in a few seconds flat, then took off down the nearby walkway. The metallic catwalk winded around buildings, quickly losing all structural logic as it curved at 90 degree angles straight up and straight down, turned upside down, and doubled back on itself with explosive panels that launched Sonic into a gait even faster than normal. Although it seemed nonsensical, every path led to a specific factory, not a single turn was made in excess: it was quite obvious this speedway was built by robots, its efficiency not readily noticeable until you experienced it yourself.

Sonic tore down the narrow pathway, bouncing off of spring-loaded panels and through a pack of transport robots by curling into a ball. What little of the robots he saw was rusted to near-nothing; circuits were exposed, armor rendered completely useless, and all paint chipped away long ago, leaving sparking, skeletal golems. The blue hedgehog sped past a service station that appeared to be on fire, completely forgotten by the robotic inhabitants. Broken, lifeless robots lie strewn across both the highways below and the catwalks above: it seemed not even Robotnik and his machines could avoid the test of time.

With every step, the chain got closer, still obscured by a mile or two of tangled speedway. It wasn't just from Sonic's direction, either. The net of walkways stretched out in every direction, looking like the work of a giant metal spider, making a giant web over the top of the city. It got thicker as it got closer to the center of the city, before a few of the strips of metal winded down into the shaft holding the chain. The blue hedgehog blasted forward, his legs blurring into a figure-8 as they kept their host on the narrow catwalk. A silhouette over the red glow of the city below was the only warning Sonic had of the danger approaching.

Metal Sonic exploded out of the catwalk in front of him, barely missing splitting the hedgehog up the middle. Sonic side-stepped around him, keeping the pace as a familiar voice filled the murky night.

"Ohohoho! Welcome to my beautiful city, Sonic! It's been quite a while!" Dr. Robotnik cackled over the PA, his voice echoing loudly into the rusted skeleton of the Doctor's dystopia. "I see you've met my esteemed colleague, Metal Sonic! You remember him from the Scrap Brain, no? As it turns out, I scavenged [i]just enough[/i] data from your brain to run my masterpiece." Metal Sonic turned around in midair, waggling his finger at his nonmetal counterpart, then flipped around and cranked his rear turbine to up to full power. He hung in the heavy, neon-lit air for a second, then seemed to disappear in a cloud of choking exhaust. Sonic wasted no time gawking, taking off after his rival at full speed.

It didn't take him long to catch up to Metal Sonic, but every time Sonic got close, Metal took off faster by surrounding himself with a golden burst of electricity. It was astounding how fast the robot was; no one had ever been able to keep up with Sonic at full speed, let alone play keep away.

"You'd better speed up, little one!" Robotnik boomed over the PA again, "Metal's going to shut the hatch to the chain shaft, leaving you out in the cold!" Sonic growled, pushing his limits and running even faster. His legs were starting to hurt, something that had never happened before. Metal Sonic turned his head around a full 360, saw his opponent getting closer, then dropped to the catwalk and initiated combat. Sonic curled into a ball, barely dodging the robotic hedgehog's razor-sharp claws, then uncurled and sped forward. Metal Sonic launched ahead, almost instantly catching up to the original.

Neither hedgehog was showing signs of stopping, which was just fine with Dr. Robotnik, deep below his foul metropolis, inside his hidden control room. He watched the high-speed chase through Metal's visor, thoroughly impressed with both himself and his creation. "I do believe I've outdone myself this time," he said to himself, chuckling. "This has turned out to be a very lucrative venture…" He turned to another monitor, this one displaying a nearly-wrecked base. Robots worked feverishly to put the finishing touches on what would be his greatest invention since Metal Sonic: an orbital battleship, several thousand times the size of anything he'd ever made before.

Sonic lunged forward, Metal Sonic's hot sparks singing the tips of his quills. The robotic hedgehog flew ahead, no longer bothering with attacking his rival, and quickly reached top speed. Sonic did the same, desperately trying to catch up with his doppelganger; if he couldn't reach the hatch before Metal closed it, there was no way he was rescuing Amy or stopping Robotnik. The blue hedgehog propelled himself into the Super Mobius Strip Peelout, taking a position directly next to Metal Sonic as one desperately tried to outrace the other. The city was massive, but the race was coming to close, and the victor was entirely up in the air.

"GO SONIC, GO!" Amy shouted in Robotnik's ear, causing him to flinch and fall forward. He turned around, growling.

"Did you get loose AGAIN?" he hissed, slamming a fist down on the massive keyboard in front of him. The screen flickered, then regained clarity. The pink hedgehog snarled right back.

"No way some nasty old man's going to keep me chained up forever!" the spunky young girl shouted, brandishing her hammer bravely. Robotnik rolled his eyes, sighing.

"Oh, don't you worry, I'll let you go as soon as Sonic's finished," he grunted, "I have no need for you beyond baiting the trap, and frankly, I'll be glad to be rid of you." Amy crossed her arms, insulted, and huffed.

"Fine, but there's no way Sonic's going to lose to that rusty bucket of bolts you've sent after him!" she insisted, "Just because it looks like Sonic, it doesn't mean that he's as strong as him!" The good Doctor smiled.

"Why, you're right, my dear," he chuckled. "He's even stronger."

Suddenly, the monitor displaying the race through Metal's eyes went dead. Robotnik turned around, immediately noticing the lack of light and audio feed, and roared in anger. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?" he demanded, fiddling with the controls, desperately trying to reconnect to his glorious creation, but to no avail. It didn't take him long to speculate as to what had happened. He reloaded the video log of the race, skipping to the end.

The massive display showed Sonic pulling ahead immediately after the quick interference of Robotnik's enraged fist hitting the keyboard. The flesh and blood hedgehog turned around backward while still running at full speed, smiled at the failing robot, and disappeared into the chain shaft. For seemingly no reason, the metallic hedgehog flew straight ahead into the chain, causing all video feed to cease, barring a single line of text along the bottom of the screen.

[i]_Manual Control Mode Engaged_[/i]

The Doctor roared in anger, pounding the control panel even harder. "YOU LITTLE PINK NUISANCE! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!" Amy grinned, clapping her hands together in glee.

"I told you Sonic can't lose!" she giggled. Dr. Robotnik, completely furious, tapped a button on his keyboard. Without further delay, a pair of primitive humanoid robots emerged from the walls, restraining the pink hedgehog and dragging her screaming away from their master, who swiveled back around to his desk. He typed a few keywords in, changing the blank video feed from Metal's busted visor to several security feeds from throughout the facility. Sonic was making his way toward the control room, slowly, but surely.

"Well, hedgehog…" he sighed, pulling lightly on his moustache, "You better bring your very best game, because I'm certainly bringing mine."

Sonic ducked under another whirring buzz saw, barely avoiding getting his head taken clean off. He made what had to have been his third "close shave" joke, then laughed aloud. "Maybe if I keep telling it, it'll come around again," he told himself, still chuckling. Despite the danger of the current situation, he was feeling rather whimsical after his epic win against his metal double.

"I've got to be getting close, now…" the blue hedgehog huffed, brushing the oil and dust off of himself. Despite the dilapidated city outside, this place was still surprisingly kempt. Sure, it was all nasty, dangerous machinery, but at least it wasn't rusted to nothing. At last, a small, metal plate over a massive doorway read "Control Room", indicating that the hedgehog's goal was within reach. This was quickly confirmed by a loud screech.

"SONIC! LOOKOUT!" Amy cried as Dr. Robotnik crashed through the ceiling in a massive robotic exoskeleton, which held a tube containing the young female mammal on its back. The robot, overall, looked moderately unfinished, with weapons stuck onto places they looked as though they shouldn't be and exposed wiring. Painted on the side, in blood-red ink, was a designation: [E-54 PSYCHO EGG].

Atop the mountain of weaponry and metal was a glass cockpit in which the Doctor sat, smiling at his tiny adversary. "So good of you to drop by, Sonic! I was getting quite lonely here. Your girlfriend doesn't make very good conver-SATION!" On the last syllable, the Psycho Egg crashed one of its massive arms down near Sonic, who barely avoided being crushed. This brought the humanoid monstrosity's torso closer, which the hedgehog took as an opening to attack. As he leapt forward, curled into a ball, flames screamed from an opening on the robot's shoulder, torching the hedgehog and interrupting his attack. He hit the ground, rolled, and stood back up, blackened and coughing.

"As you can see, my little friend, this masterpiece was quite hastily thrown together. Perhaps you recognize some of the parts?" the good Doctor laughed as Sonic examined the robot closer. Its feet were, in fact, made from the pistons he'd fought Dr. R. in at the Scrap Brain. Several of the weapons were upgraded versions of the ones he'd fought back on South Island, including the flamethrower he'd just been barbecued by. "Now, I'll give you a little taste of what this thing can DO!" A mechanical whir filled the room, quickly followed by the clunk of heavy ammunition loading. On the robot's left arm, a rail gun readied itself and immediately fired a giant hunk of electrified metal toward the hedgehog. Within seconds, half of the room was engulfed in an explosion. The exoskeleton stumbled backward, the Doctor howling with laughter and Amy screaming in anguish the entire time.

"THAT was certainly a success! Remind me to mount this thing on something else when we're done here!" he shouted back to Amy, who was crying into her hands. Suddenly, the robot began to shake. It took a few quick steps backward at its master's command, narrowly dodging having its leg ripped asunder from below. Sonic burrowed out of the floor, falling to one knee and panting heavily.

"Doc," he gasped, "That was NOT nice." The Doctor nodded with an insane grin, assuring his opponent that he was, indeed, not nice. Before Dr. Robotnik could wipe the smug grin from his face, the hedgehog was launching himself toward the mechanical suit. He bounced harmlessly off of one of the shoulders, landing firmly on the right arm. The Psycho Egg swatted at the hedgehog with its free hand, unable to fire directly upon itself. Sonic nimbly avoided being grabbed and subsequently crushed by the massive iron hands, then readied himself as the flame jet emerged from the robot's shoulder. He promptly curled into a ball, dashing up the arm and breaking the dangerous weaponry from the machine altogether. The Eggman was not deterred, however, and kept swinging his creation's arms at the little blue hedgehog all the while.

Amy screamed encouragement from her glass prison on the Psycho Egg's back, refusing to let her beau go down without a fight. The hedgehog flung himself repeatedly against the mechanized exoskeleton's scant armor, each time doing little to no damage. Attacking the exposed wiring on the joints directly would be more effective, but also more than likely electrocute the tiny hedgehog to death upon severing them. Sonic quickly realized that the fight was going nowhere, and took a few steps backward before fleeing through the gaping hole the Psycho Egg's rail gun had provided.

_Maybe_, he thought, _I'll have more luck out in the open_. This was wishful thinking at best, but the robot was definitely going to win in a never-ending stamina contest, which was what the fight had become. As he fled through the sparking opening, the Psycho Egg quickly gave chase, smashing an even larger hole to get through. The pair of adversaries fell, in a shower of sparks and metal, onto a narrow catwalk over the heart of the robot factory below, which quickly gave way under the massive machine's weight. Sonic managed to scramble to safety before the walkway crumbled entirely, but the robot wasn't so lucky. The hedgehog yelped in surprise as both it and Amy tumbled downward, prompting him to leap after them.

The robot's weight insured a long, destructive fall. None of the catwalks made for traversing the factory were large enough to stop it, but slowed it enough for Sonic to catch up to it and land upon the Psycho Egg's torso. Dr. Robotnik smiled through the glass of the cockpit. "It really is too bad neither of you will survive this fall!" he cackled, pressing a button to disengage the glass case from the robot's rear. It quickly caught air resistance and floated slightly upward, allowing Sonic to see Amy for only a split second before the Doctor's machine grabbed hold of him with its massive iron fingers.

Amy Rose brandished her hammer momentarily, then smashed through the glass of her prison, to Dr. Robotnik's surprise. She swung the mallet down into the robot's forearm, denting the metal inward and forcing it to release her beloved blue hedgehog. Sonic grabbed the pink hedgehog, got a running on the Psycho Egg's leg, then leapt to a nearby, unbroken catwalk, then another, then another, all the way to safety. The good Doctor stared, slack-jawed and speechless as the pair of tiny animals made their way up and out of his reach.

He pounded the controls in rage, then quickly grabbed the nearby joystick. "You're not getting away this time, hedgehog! I'm making sure of that!" The robot twitched its left arm and fired its rail gun from the hip, launching a magnetically charged shard of pain directly upward and into the control room he'd previously occupied. Sonic and Amy barely noticed the sound of the electrical discharge before the massive hunk of wires and metal directly next to them exploded. Sonic's sneakers screamed as they peeled out on the now nearly-molten metal underneath them, propelling the pair away from the ball of flaming death making its way closer. Another charged sliver of metal launched past the pair, decimating a mass of machinery above them, revealing the churning, noxious clouds above. Red light and stinging acid rain poured into the factory as Sonic the Hedgehog fled from the fire and shrapnel of the detonating fortress and into the ruined city topside. The immense bullet hole lead directly to the streets of the mechanized dystopia, where tons of robots still toiled endlessly toward some unknown goal. Their extremely basic programming lead several of them directly into the hole the pair of hedgehogs had just escaped from to plummet to their doom.

Sonic and Amy looked at each other, both panting heavily as worn, broken robots rushed by in the inky, polluted night where rain destroyed instead of refreshed. Neon lights barely revealed the road below, let alone the pair of living beings among the millions of soulless machines, so neither of them even knew if the other was hurt. Adrenaline pumped so heartily through their veins that even assessment of their own wounds was impossible.

But they were alive. In this stinking, black and red abomination of a city, they were alive. Amy started to laugh first, quickly causing Sonic to join in as the two embraced each other under the poison rain. "We're not out of the fire yet, Amy," Sonic said with a suppressed smile, "We need to get out of this awful city and back to our own time."

"But how?" she asked, clinging tight to her beau and reluctant to touch the ground. Sonic sighed, shaking his head.

"I have no idea," the blue hedgehog sighed. "We need to find a Time Panel or Time Stone, but I have no idea where we'd find one…"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, children," a familiar voice snarled from behind. The pair of hedgehogs turned around in horror, revealing the Doctor floating in his Eggmobile. He was looking worse for the wear, with his moustache singed and several rather painful-looking wounds, but still alive. Even more frightening, however, was Metal Sonic standing just below him. The robot now bore little resemblance to his namesake, with his faceplate almost completely destroyed and most of the Sonic-like details either mangled beyond the point of recognition or gone altogether. "You see, you won't be leaving this city. Ever," Dr. Robotnik growled. He snapped his fingers, prompting Metal Sonic to launch toward them. Sonic immediately blasted away, never stopping to look back and dodging the thousands of robots flooding the streets. Metal Sonic wasn't as courteous, simply ripping through his mechanical cousins like bags of sparking leaves.

The robot screamed through the streets of the polluted city, chasing perhaps the only two organic beings left on the planet. A few of its claws were broken away, but even one was enough to do serious damage, which it very much intended to use. It swung its arms haphazardly at the pair, catching Amy's hair band at one point and tearing it to pieces instantly. Metal Sonic wasn't going to stop until either it or the hedgehogs were destroyed, meaning Sonic had to think fast about how they were going to escape. He looked forward; the edge of the crater was getting near, allowing for an upward escape into the desert beyond, but what then? Run more?

"Amy! Swing your hammer at him! Do anything! We can't outrun him forever!" Sonic shouted, desperately avoiding robots he couldn't curl up to destroy with his girlfriend in his arms. The blouse-clad hedgehog did as she was told, swinging her Piko Piko Hammer wildly at the deadly skeleton of Metal Sonic, who didn't take the blows very lightly. The first struck its head, smashing its glass visor further and revealing the lens-like eye beneath. It faltered slightly in its flight path, but stayed the course. The second blow caught its claw mid-swing and tore the entire arm from its chassis, causing it to lose balance entirely and swerve into the side of an obsidian-black building. At that point, the robot copy could no longer take any punishment, and its head quickly broke from its shoulders at the sudden impact of the collision, causing the entire machine to explode. Amy looked back at Sonic.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be…" she said with a chuckle. From the wreckage, a shining stone launched into the air, like a beacon in the inky night. Sonic skidded to a halt, watching the rock hurtle straight up, then rocket toward the ground. Amy jumped from her weary boyfriend's arms, gleefully trotting over to catch the tiny stone when it fell. Sonic put his hands on his knees, taking a few deep breaths. It had been a LONG day.

"Thank goodness…" he gasped, "Please tell me that's what Metal used to travel through time." Amy shrugged, handing the supposed Time Stone to her boyfriend. He felt the weight in his palm, then tossed it lazily up and down. "Sure looks like a Time Stone. At least, it's shiny and gold like one. Time to blow this popsicle stand." Sonic grabbed the pink hedgehog, held the mystical gem tight, then blasted away, nearly instantly disappearing in a blaze of white light.

Act 4 – Making a Good Future (Past)

Sonic and Amy emerged from the flow of time into what appeared to be a crystalline citadel. The pink hedgehog's jaw dropped at the beauty of the glistening constructs surrounding them, forming what appeared to be a massive rollercoaster that coursed with the very lifeblood of the planet. What was cold, dark steel in the future was now warm, dimly-glowing Time Stone seemingly growing out of the damp, grassy soil. Birds sang loudly from trees that twisted in and out of the gemstone pillars like leafy snakes. For as far as Sonic could see, beautiful castles of Time Stone jutted from the treetops like the mountains near Never Lake on the planet below, all holding on dearly to the crystalline artery winding perilously in and out of their turrets and towers.

Amy fell backward onto the cool, swaying grass and sighed happily. She'd missed fresh air and sunlight desperately while under the watchful eyes of Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic; Sonic smiled down at her, proud of how far she'd come. He would take care of the Little Planet's future while she rested. In a cloud of grass blades and dust, the blue hedgehog was gone. The pink hedgehog didn't bother opening her eyes, and smiled warmly.

The trees were thick, preventing Sonic from blasting through at top speed, but he kept a steady gait as he looked for the Doc or Metal Sonic. One, or both, of them would come here and place a Robot Transporter, which was the key to stopping their progress in the future. If he could destroy it (and preferably get a few knots in on Robotnik's skull), there wouldn't be any robots in the past to build that Metallic Madness through the ages and choke the planet.

Sonic sped through the dense forest, splashing through puddles and plowing through undergrowth with his Spin Dash, until finally, he emerged into a clearing with a pair of familiar faces.

"…that h-hedgehog!" Dr. Robotnik coughed mid-sentence, seeing his hated rival emerge from the brush. Sonic grinned at the inactive Metal Sonic resting lifelessly in a capsule beneath the Eggmobile, then smiled even wider at the Doctor, who was, before the intrusion, working busily on a skeletal Robot Teleporter.

"You've caused me a TON of trouble, Egghead," he chuckled through his teeth, clenching his fists in rage. It wasn't in his nature to kill, but he felt as though he could at the moment, after all that business in the future. "You are SO not putting one of those here, or ANYWHERE on this planet!" Flabbergasted, Dr. Robotnik dropped his tools and inched toward his Eggmobile.

"H-How…but…!" he stuttered, then stopped. He frowned. "You've…already foiled my plans in the future, haven't you?" Sonic dusted his gloves off, nodding nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah, giant robot thing, Metal Sonic, evil metropolis, the whole nine yards," he said with a yawn, "Thought you'd get me with that giant robot suit, but me an' Amy took it out no problemo." The "Eggman" sighed heavily. "So, here's the deal. You go back down to our planet, find a nice cozy corner of some glacier somewhere, and you STAY. THERE. FOREVER," the blue hedgehog seethed, prodding the Doctor's nose with his gloved index finger. The round, bald man nodded worriedly, scrambling back into his Eggmobile with Metal Sonic still slumbering inside.

"You got lucky this time, hedgehog!" he shouted, Metal Sonic's chest-mounted air vent glowing as the Eggmobile drew from its Time Stone engines. "LUCKY, YOU HEAR ME?" And with that, the dastardly duo disappeared in a flash of light. It was about time Sonic did the same, so he jogged back to Amy, who'd fallen asleep on the grass, Time Stone still clutched tight in her hand. He reached down carefully, pulled her up to his chest, then leapt up onto the top of a tree. From there, he jumped onto a Time Stone pillar, ran up it, and onto the Stardust Speedway that winded through the area.

"C'mon, Amy, let's go home." Sonic's legs propelled them forward, and in moments, they disappeared into the fabric of time itself, on their way home to the present.

Sonic and Amy looked up at the Little Planet, wistfully. It floated slowly back to the heavens, no longer tethered to this planet by massive chains. The blue hedgehog smiled at Amy for a moment, then disappeared in a cloud of dust. Amy screeched in surprise, then looked around for her beloved beau. The only glimpse she caught of him was as he disappeared over the mountains, on his way back to the Tornado.

As he ran, Sonic thought about what Pachacamac had said in the aqueducts of the past. [i]He sure acted weird when I said I'd ran fast enough to activate the Time Panels…[/i] He sped through the rocky outcroppings of the mountains behind him, finally reaching flat plains, then a calm, sandy beach where the Tornado was parked.

He stopped for a moment, stared at his biplane, then rubbed his chin. "Wasn't this thing…red…when I left it…?" The normally red trim on his plane was now blue, something that, actually, fit him a lot better, now that he looked at it. "Well, I guess no harm done," he said with a shrug, then jumped back with a yelp as a pair of orange fox tails suddenly poked out of the cockpit. Sonic's face turned bright red.

"H-HEY! Y-You lovebirds! Outta my plane!" he screamed, stomping his foot. The tails bristled and stood on end, accompanied by a shriek of surprise. A young fox with a pair of welding goggles on peeked, mortified, from over the edge of the cockpit. Between his two, giant ears was a cowlick like no other, which probably meant he was too young for any hanky-panky. He was dead silent.

"Who the heck're you?" Sonic asked, scratching the back of his head. "Where's the other one?" The fox cocked his head slightly.

"O-O-Other o-one?" he repeated, visibly shaking. Sonic nodded, poking his nose and tapping his foot with impatience.

"Yes, other one. Two tails poked outta my plane, and I only see one fox," the blue hedgehog grumbled.

"Th-They're b-b-both mine…" he mumbled. Sonic sighed, shaking his head and putting a hand to his face.

"How dumb do you think I am, kid?" he grumbled, "What on Earth are you doing to my plane? Did you paint it like this?"

The fox nodded.

"Well, it's not half bad, if I do say so myself," he said with a grin. The kid couldn't be all bad if he painted his plane with such a cool shade of blue, and with such detail. "But you still haven't told me what you're doing IN my plane."

"Oh, well, uh…y-you had some wires loose down here, so I th-thought I'd check it o-out," he explained. His stutter was getting better as he got less afraid of Sonic. "When I got d-down here, the whole p-place was a mess. I polished most of the fittings and r-recalibrated your altimeter, fixed an oil leak and patched up a f-few fuel lines. I'm surprised it d-didn't blow up on the way here."

"Wow," Sonic said with a smile, "You know a lot more about that plane than I do, and I've had it for years. And you're how old?"

"E-Eight, s-sir." Sonic laughed out loud.

"Please, PLEASE don't call me sir. The name's Sonic." The fox cub's eyes widened behind the goggles, which he promptly removed.

"You're S-S-Sonic?" he asked, leaning out further out of the cockpit. Sonic nodded, pointing to his name inscribed on the side of the plane. "W-W-Wow! I'm a h-huge f-f-fan! I heard h-how you stopped that R-R-Robotnik guy on S-South Island!" Sonic smiled, cleaning out his ear with a pinky.

"Yeah, just got back from stomping his butt again on Little Planet," he chuckled smugly, "Enough about me, though, what's your name, Two-Tails?" The fox blushed, losing all feeling in his arms and tumbling out of the plane headfirst. He caught himself in midair…by flying. His two tails (he wasn't lying, Sonic thought) rotated like a pair of helicopter blades, keeping the tiny fox afloat. Sonic's jaw dropped.

"You can FLY with those things?" he burbled, mouth gaping. The fox nodded, scratching his head.

"Y-Yeah…it's no big deal, really…" he mumbled. Sonic shook his head.

"No way, man, that is a HUGE deal," the blue hedgehog smiled. "That is AWESOME." The airborne mammal smiled widely, clapping his hands together happily.

"Th-Thanks! M-My n-n-name is M-M-Miles!" he stuttered nervously. "Miles P-Prower!"


End file.
